The arcade classic born from Atari's 1976 Breakout — play brick breaker free in your browser with power-ups, endless stages and a global leaderboard. No download, no sign-up.

How to play

Slide the paddle to bounce the ball into the wall of bricks; clear them all to advance. The ball rebounds straight up from the paddle's center and at a sharper angle the closer it hits to the edge — angle control is the whole game. Mouse on desktop, drag on mobile, tap or space to launch. Lose every ball on screen and you lose a life; three lives and it's game over.

Step by step

1. Press START. After a "STAGE 1" banner the ball sits on your paddle. Move the paddle with the mouse (drag on a phone) or the ← → keys.
2. Tap the screen or press space to launch. The launch angle varies slightly every time.
3. Each brick the ball hits breaks and adds points. Now and then a W, S or M capsule drops from a broken brick — catch it with the paddle.
4. Clear every brick and you get +500, a "STAGE 2" banner, a short pause and a fresh layout. The ball returns to the paddle.
5. Miss the ball and you lose one ❤; lose all three and the result screen shows the stage reached, bricks broken and power-ups caught. Enter a nickname to join the leaderboard.

The nine power-ups

• F (Fireball) — for 5 seconds the ball ploughs straight through bricks instead of bouncing, wrecking everything it touches. Tough bricks go in one hit.
• L (Laser) — for 6 seconds both paddle tips fire lasers upward. Just sweep the paddle and watch the wall melt.
• B (Bomb) — your next two hits blow up a 5×5 area. Catch more to stack charges.
• X (Ball shower) — five balls fan out from the paddle. Up to 10 on screen.
• G (Big ball) — a double-size ball for 7 seconds that barges through narrow gaps.
• ♥ (Life) — one extra life (max 4).
• W (Wide) — a 1.5× paddle for 9 seconds.
• S (Slow) — slows the ball for 6 seconds. A lifesaver in later stages.
• M (Multiball) — every ball in flight gets a mirror twin (up to four added at once).

Stage structure

There is no last stage. Each row holds 16 bricks. Stages 1–2 have eight rows; one row is added every two stages until stage 17 settles at sixteen — 128 bricks on the very first stage and 256 on a full late one. Layouts run through fourteen patterns in order — full wall, checkerboard, pyramid, diamond, frame, columns, stairs, heart, X, stripes, castle, ring, hourglass, arrow — and come back around with more rows and tougher bricks.

Tough bricks (the dots in the middle show hits left) start in the top row on stage 2 and spread downward as you climb: two-hit rows grow by one every two stages (up to 60% of the wall), three-hit rows from stage 5 by one every three stages (up to 35%), four-hit rows from stage 12 by one every five stages (up to 20%). Ball speed rises each stage and caps at about 2.2× the starting speed on stage 15. Slow cuts whatever the current speed is to 70% for six seconds.

Points at a glance

Breaking a brick	Bottom row 10, +10 for every row above it — the top row of an eight-row stage is 80, of a sixteen-row stage 160
Stage clear	+500
Power-ups	Each broken brick has a 20% chance to drop one, at most six on screen at a time. Ball shower and Life are rare
Leaderboard	Open to any run of 10 points or more, i.e. at least one brick broken

Scoring tips

Higher rows are worth more, and every cleared stage adds a 500-point bonus. Thread the ball up a side channel and let it rattle between the ceiling and the bricks — the most satisfying moment in the game. The ball speeds up each stage, so save Slow for when you need it.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to my lives with Multiball?

Catching M gives every ball in flight a mirror twin travelling the other way (up to four added at once; with Ball shower, 10 balls on screen at most). However many balls you have, a life is lost only when the last one drops off the bottom, so losing one or two during Multiball costs nothing.

The ball just bounces sideways and never comes down

The paddle sends the ball straight up from its center and up to about 60 degrees from vertical at its very edge. If the ball is skating almost horizontally, catch it near the center to straighten it out. The reverse trick helps too: when one or two bricks are left in a corner, catch on purpose with the edge to send the ball in at a slant.

Can I hold Wide and Slow at the same time?

Yes, they run independently — 9 seconds for Wide, 6 for Slow — and the time left is printed under the paddle as "W 7s S 4s". Catching the same kind again restarts its timer from the beginning.

Can I play with the keyboard only?

Yes. Hold ← or → to move the paddle and press space to launch. The keys move the paddle at a fixed speed, so for the fastest balls the mouse has a slight edge.

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